Method and system for providing targeted content to a surfer

ABSTRACT

Providing targeted content to a surfer by determining which content object of a group of content objects, will be best suited for presentation in association with a link on a requested web page. Content objects may include the text, topic, font, color or other attribute of an external or internal advertisement, as well as the specific design of the object, an image, the design of the page in which the object is presented, etc. Selection of a content object can be based on predictive information that is associated with the request (i.e. day and time of receipt, IP address of request, etc.) or historical information about the surfer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is being filed in the United States Patent Office under35 USC 111 and 37 CFR 1.53(b) as a continuation of, and claimingpriority to, the U.S. patent application assigned Ser. No. 12/503,925which was filed on Jul. 16, 2009 and which claims the benefit of thefiling date of United States Provisional Application for Patent entitledMETHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING TARGETED CONTENT TO A SURFER, filed onJul. 25, 2008 and assigned Ser. No. 61/083,551 as well as the filingdate of United States Provisional Application for Patent entitled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR CREATING A PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR TARGETING CONTENT TO ASURFER, filed on Jul. 25, 2008 and assigned Ser. No. 61/083,558, whichapplications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This application is related to a United States Patent Application thathas a title of METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CREATING A PREDECTIVE MODEL FORTARGETING WEBPAGE TO A SURFER, assigned Ser. No. 12/504,265 and filed onJul. 16, 2009, which application is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND

More and more people are communicating via the Internet and othernetworks. The Internet, in particular, is a hierarchy of many smallercomputer networks, all of which are interconnected by various types ofserver computers. Some of the servers interconnected through theInternet provide database housing as well as storage of a plurality ofweb pages, generally referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW). By virtueof being accessible through the WWW, these web pages may be retrieved byrandom Internet users, i.e. surfers, operating computers with a browser.

Some common examples of browser applications used by Internet surfersare Openwave Systems Inc. or Opera Mobile Browser (a trademark of OperaSoftware ASA), Microsoft Internet Explorer (a trademark of Microsoft),and Firefox Web Browser. Using a web browser application on a computerthat is connected to the Internet, surfers may retrieve web pages thatinclude information such as news, professional information,advertisements, e-commerce links, content downloads, etc. A commonbrowser application may use Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) inorder to request a web page from a website. Upon receipt of a web pagerequest by a browser, the website responds by transmitting a markuplanguage file, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), that isrepresentative of the requested page or pages. Notably, HTTP requestsand HTML responses are well known in the art and are used asrepresentative terms for the respective markup language files throughoutthis disclosure.

A common web page may include numerous buttons, or links, operable toredirect a surfer to other locations within the website or on theInternet. These links offer a surfer a path to a next event which may bethe presentation of another web page, embedded content within thepresent web page (e.g. an image, an advertisement, a banner, etc.), aplayable media file, a number for forwarding a short message service(SMS) with a password, an application form, a registration form, etc.

A common link design may display a name of a category of information,such as news, sport, or economics. Other link designs may comprise abanner or an image intended to attract the attention of a surfer to anadvertisement, an image, a text message that prompts the surfer to diala number and use a password, etc. If a surfer is enticed to explore theoffer shown on the link design, the surfer will use a pointing devicesuch as a mouse, and place the pointer over the selected button, whichmay be comprised of a banner for example, and issue a command by“clicking” the mouse to “click through” on that button. In such ascenario, the surfer's browser may return information from a websiteassociated with the particular banner that comprised the link.

In the present description, the terms “selecting button,” “selectionbutton,” “redirecting button,” “slot”, “link,” “Hyper Link” and “banner”are used interchangeably. The terms “banner” and “slot” can be used as arepresentative term for the above group. An “advertisement” (AD) or“object” may be used as representative terms for content. Exemplarytypes of content can be the text of an AD as well as an AD's font,color, design of the object, an image, the design of the page in whichthe object is presented, etc.

The benefit from presenting a web page, as well as improving a surfer'sexperience when surfing the web page, can be increased if the selectionbuttons within the web page are targeted toward the immediate observer.There are numerous existing methods and systems for offering targetedcontent in a web based environment. Some of the methods employquestionnaires containing categorized questions on user preferences.Such methods require the management of huge databases containinginformation on a large number of users. Besides the cumbersomemanagement of all the information acquired from questionnaires, anothernegative is that many users prefer not to even reply to a personalizequestionnaire.

Other methods for identifying and offering targeted content in a webenvironment make use of client applications installed on a user'scomputer. The client applications are operable to track a user'sactivity on the web and subsequently report a compilation of the trackedactivity to an associated web server or content server. Such methods arenot popular with many users concerned with privacy. Further, suchmethods require the often costly and awkward installation of a clientapplication on a user's computer.

Some methodologies for delivery of targeted content may comprise alearning period and an ongoing period. During the learning period, aplurality of options of content within a certain web page may bepresented to various surfers. The response of the surfers to the variouscontent options is monitored throughout the learning period inanticipation of ultimately employing the best performing alternative.During the subsequent ongoing period, all a surfers requesting thecertain web page will be exposed to the previously selected alternative.Such an algorithm is often referred to as “The king of the Hill”algorithm. While a “King of the Hill” approach can fit the preference ofa large group of surfers, it is prone to missing other groups of surfersthat prefer other content delivery alternatives.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system that cancalculate predictive models for determining an object to be presented inassociation with a given link in a web page used to attract an observerand entice a response. Exemplary responses may be the selection, orclicking of, a the link (banner, for example), sending of an SMS,calling a number and using a password, etc. In an embodiment of thepresent invention, when calculating the predictive model the expectedvalue to the content provider is taken into account. In order to saveexpenses and complexity, it is recommended that the system betransparent to a surfer and will not require a database for storinginformation associated with a number of surfers.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention seek to provide novelsolutions for determining which content object taken from a group ofcontent objects will be best suited for presentation in association witha link on a requested web page. Exemplary types of content objects maycomprise the text, topic, font, color or other attribute of anadvertisement. Still other content objects may comprise the specificdesign of the object, an image, the design of the page in which theobject is presented, etc. The decision process for selecting a contentobject can be based on predictive information that is associated withthe request, such as a common HTTP request. Exemplary associatedpredictive information may include the day and time of receipt of therequest for the web page, the IP address and\or domain from which therequest was sent, the type and the version of the browser applicationthat is used for requesting the web page, the URL used by a surfer forrequesting the web page with the parameters that are attached to theURL.

Other types of predictive information can be statistical informationindicative of the behavior of a surfer in relation to the website towhich the request was sent. Behavioral information may include timers,frequency of visits by a surfer to the website, the last time that asurfer requested a web page, etc. Other behavioral information mayinclude one or more counters wherein each counter can count the numberof events of a certain type. Exemplary counters can measure the numberof visits by a specific surfer to the relevant website, the number ofrequests for a certain web page within the website, the number of timesa certain offer (content object) was selected or not selected, etc. Evenfurther, some of the exemplary counters may be time dependent such thatthe value of the counter descends over time. In some exemplaryembodiments of the present invention, the behavioral information may beembedded within a cookie that is related to the relevant website or athird party cookie.

Still other exemplary types of predictive information comprise groupingor categorizing information. Grouping information can be delivered by aweb server that contains a requested web page. The grouping informationcan be associated with a group to which a current surferbelongs—surfer's grouping information (SGI). Exemplary surfer's groupinginformation can be used to define attributes of the group such aspreferred sport clothing, preferred brand names, married status, sex,age, etc. Surfer's grouping information can be managed by the web serverand added to a field in a cookie associated with a certain surfer, forexample.

Other grouping predictive information can reflect attributes of thecontent-content grouping information (CGI). The CGI can be related tothe requested web page as well as attributes of the content objectspresented in the requested web page. Exemplary CGI can define attributesof the page or the content object such as the cost of a product, aproduct brand, vacation information, etc. CGI can be managed by the webserver and added to a field in the URL of a certain web page or URL of acertain content object, for example.

Each type of predictive information, associated predictive information,predictive statistical information and grouping predictive informationcan be retrieved and processed for defining one or more predictivefactors which can be used in one or more predictive models. Thepredictive factors are used for calculating the predictive value gainedby the website when presenting each content element. This value can alsobe the probability of a certain content object from a group to beselected by a surfer currently observing the requested web page.

An alternative is to use a utility value. A utility value can representa website's benefit when the alternative is explored by a surfer. Theprobability can be multiplied by the associated utility to obtain theexpected utility when presenting the alternative. In the presentdescription, the terms “predictive information,” “predictive factor,”and “predictive variable” may be used interchangeably.

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention can use a bank ofpredictive models. Each predictive model can be associated with acontent object from the set of content objects that can be presentedover the requested web page. An exemplary predictive model may includeone or more predictive factors with each predictive factor (predictivevariable) being associated with a coefficient in a predictive formula.Exemplary predictive formulas can be based on known predictivealgorithms such as, but not limited to, logistic regression, linearregression, decision tree analysis, etc. Some exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention can use linear or logistic regression, with orwithout stepwise methods, while calculating the predictive formula.

A predictive factor can also be a subset of values of certain variablessuch as, for example, the weekdays Monday and Saturday. The coefficientcan thus outline the effect a predictive factor has on the probabilitythat a relevant content object will trigger a desired response from asurfer. Exemplary predictive factors may include, for example, the dayin the week (Monday and Saturday, for example), the hour, the browsertype, the number of visits to the site, the content object that ispresented in accordance with another link on the same web page, thetotal elapsed time from the last visit, etc.

Exemplary predictive models can include some constants that are relatedto the content object associated with the model. Exemplary constants maybe a utility constant which reflects the benefits the owner of thewebsite receives when the relevant content object is selected or anarithmetic factor.

For each content object presented over a requested web page, apredictive model with relevant predictive factors is processed such thatthe predicted objective, the probability of success for example, iscalculated. A success is defined as a surfer responding to the presentedcontent. For example, should a surfer select a relevant content object,the probability of the objects that can be presented is calculated.Subsequently, the objects with the highest predictive expected utilityare selected to be associated with the links in the web page requestedby the surfer. The markup file that represents the web page is modifiedsuch that its links point to the selected objects. The predictiveobjective value can be calculated to correspond to the predictive model.For example, in the logistic regression predictive model, the optimallinear predictive function is calculated and converted using a linkfunction such as “Log Odds,”

Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include alearning module. An exemplary learning module may be adapted to monitorthe data exchange between a plurality of random surfers at one or morewebsites. Further, it can collect predictive information on contentobjects embedded within the requested web pages as well as track howeach of the random surfers responds to those offers. From time to time,the exemplary learning module can process the sampled data in order todetermine which predictive factors are relevant for each one of theobjects and calculated an associated coefficient for success. Per eachobject, its associated statistical module can be updated or recalculatedusing the new or updated predictive factors.

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention operates in either oftwo modes of operation, i.e. learning mode and ongoing mode. Thelearning mode can be executed after the initialization or when thecontent of the website is changed. During the learning mode, newpredictive models are calculated. The ongoing mode can be executed afterthe learning mode and may monitor and tune existing predictive models.

During the learning mode, a large portion of communication sessions aresampled in order to define the new predictive models. Also during theongoing mode, the size of the sample can be reduced and the predictivemodel tuned. When a significant change in the performance of apredictive model is observed, then a notification can be issued and/or anew predictive model can be created

The foregoing summary is not intended to summarize each potentialembodiment or every aspect of the present disclosure. Other features andadvantages of the present disclosure will become apparent upon readingthe following detailed description of the embodiments with theaccompanying drawings and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be understood andappreciated more fully from the following detailed description, taken inconjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustration of an exemplaryportion of a communication network in which exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention can be used.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a simplified block diagram withrelevant elements of an exemplary content adaptive server (CAS) thatoperates according to certain technique of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 3A & 3B schematically illustrate a flowchart showing relevantprocesses of an exemplary embodiment of a management method.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a flowchart showing relevant processesof an exemplary embodiment of a method for handling a request for a webpage.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a flowchart showing relevant processesof an exemplary embodiment of a method for storing sampled data.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a flowchart showing relevant processesof an exemplary embodiment of a method for handling a ML file of arequested web page.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a flowchart showing relevant processesof an exemplary embodiment of a method for selecting an optional objectto be presented on a requested web page.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a flowchart showing relevant processesof an exemplary embodiment of a method for controlling the predictivemodels.

FIGS. 9A & 9B schematically illustrate a flowchart showing relevantprocesses of an exemplary embodiment of a method for building apredictive model.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to the presentation of data overcommunication networks, such as the Internet, and more particularly toselecting one or more objects (content of a web link) from a group ofobjects of content, to be presented over a requested web page.

Turning now to the figures in which like numerals represent likeelements throughout the several views, exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention are described. For convenience, only some elements ofthe same group may be labeled with numerals. The purpose of the drawingsis to describe exemplary embodiments. Therefore, features shown in thefigures are chosen for convenience and clarity of presentation only.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram with relevant elements of an exemplarycommunication system 100, which is a suitable environment forimplementing exemplary embodiments of the present invention.Communication system 100 may comprise a plurality of surfer terminals(ST) 110; a network 120 such as, but not limited to, the Internet; oneor more improved content servers ICS 140; and one or more adaptivecontent domains (ACD) 150.

The communications system 100 may be based on the Internet Protocol (IP)and represent one or more network segments including, but not limitedto, one or more Internet segments, one or more Intranets, etc. Network120 may run over one or more types of physical networks such as, but notlimited to, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), IntegratedServices Digital Network (ISDN), cellular networks, satellite networks,etc. Further, network 120 may run over a combination of network types.Network 120 may also include intermediate nodes along the connectionbetween a surfer and a content server. The intermediate nodes mayinclude, but are not limited to, IP service provider servers, cellularservice provider servers and other types of network equipment.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that depending uponits configuration and the needs, communication system 100 may comprisemore than three ST 110, three ICS 140 and three ACD 150. However, forpurposes of simplicity of presentation, three units of each are depictedin the figures. Further, it should be noted that the terms “terminals,”“endpoint computer,” “endpoint,” “surfer,” “random surfer,” “user'sdevice,” “mobile phone” and “user” may be used interchangeably herein.

A plurality of ST 110 may be served by system 100 for surfing theInternet 120 and fetching web pages from the one or more ICS 140 or ACD150. Exemplary ST 110 can be a personal computer (PC), a laptop, anotebook computer, a cellular telephone, a handheld computer, a personaldata assistant (PDA), or any other computing device with wired orwireless communication capabilities communicable over an IP network. Acommon ST 110 may run a browser application such as, but not limited to,Openwave Systems Inc. or Opera Mobile Browser (a trademark of OperaSoftware ASA), Microsoft Internet Explorer (a trademark of Microsoft),or Firefox Web Browser. The browser application can be used forrendering web pages. Exemplary web pages may include information such asnews, professional information, advertisements, e-commerce content, etc.

A common browser application can use HTTP while requesting a web pagefrom a website. The website can respond with a markup language file suchas but not limited to HTML files. Herein the term HTML is used as arepresentative term for a markup language file. HTTP requests and HTMLresponses are well known in the art.

Exemplary ICS 140 and/or ACD 150 may receive HTTP requests from theplurality of ST 110 and deliver web pages in the form of markup languagefiles such as, but not limited to, HTML files. An exemplary ICS 140 maycomprise a surfer's interface unit (SIU) 143 and a content adaptivemodule (CAM) 146. Exemplary SIU 143 can execute common activities of acontent server. Further, it may receive HTTP requests and respond withHTML files. In addition, exemplary SIU 143 may communicate with CAM 146and/or deliver information about the activities of the different ST 110.The activity can be the web pages requested by the surfers, for example.

In some exemplary embodiments of the present invention, SIU 143 maydeliver to CAM 146 information about surfer attributes. Exemplaryattributes may be a surfer's purchasing habits (expensive,not-expensive, brand name, etc.). A specific surfer's information can bemanaged by the web server and be added to a field in the cookieassociated with the particular surfer.

In some embodiments, the information can also be related to therequested web page as well as particular attributes of the contentobjects to be presented in the requested web page. Exemplary informationthat may define attributes of the web page or the content objectinclude, but are not limited to, the cost of a product, the brand of aproduct, vacation information, etc. This type of information can bemanaged by the web server and added to a field in the URL of a certainweb page or URL of a certain content object, for example.

CAM 146 may process requests of different surfers in order to create aplurality of predictive modules, wherein each predictive module can beassociated with an optional object that is presented over a requestedweb page in one of the slots (redirection-button) from a set of optionalslots. The predictive modules can be used to select an object thatmaximizes an expected benefit to the site owner. In the presentdescription, the terms “expected benefit” and “expected utility” can beused interchangeably. The sets of slots, in which an optional object canbe presented, and the selected optional object to be presented in eachslot (Slot/Optional-object) can be defined within the configuration ofthe web page. The configuration of the object/redirection-buttons withthe optimal prediction to be selected for the requesting surfer istransferred to SIU 143. In response, SIU 143 may modify the HTML file toinclude those objects in the relevant links.

Exemplary ACD 150 can include a plurality of common content servers 152and one or more content adaptive servers (CAS) 154. CAS 154 can beconnected as an intermediate node between the plurality of ST 110 andthe content servers 152. In one exemplary embodiment, CAS 154 may beconfigured as the default gateway of the ACD 150. In another exemplaryembodiment, CAS 154 may physically reside between the ACD 150 and thenetwork 120.

In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, aredirector may be included and CAS 154 configured as a transparentproxy. In such an embodiment, CAS 154 may be transparent to both sidesof the connection, to ST 110 and to the content servers 152. In analternate exemplary embodiment of the present invention CAS 154 may beused as a non-transparent proxy. In such an embodiment, the ST 110 canbe configured to access CAS 154 as their proxy, for example.

CAS 154 can intercept the data traffic between the plurality of ST 110and content servers 152. CAS 154 tracks the behavior of a plurality ofsurfers in order to create predictive models for content objects to beassociated with requested web pages. Subsequently, when operating in anongoing mode, the predictive models can be used for determining whichobjects to assign to a web page requested by a given surfer.

Toward ACD 150, CAS 154 can process requests of surfers, for retrievinga plurality of predictive factors to be used in a plurality ofpredictive modules, similar to the predictive modules that are used byexemplary CAM 146. In the other direction, CAS 154 can process theresponses (the HTML files, for example) and determine, based on thepredictive models, which object to present. The HTML file, whichrepresents the web page, is modified to include those objects in thelinks. More information on the operation of ICS 140 and CAS 154 isdisclosed below in conjunction with FIGS. 2 to 9.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram with relevant elements of anexemplary embodiment of a content adaptive server (CAS) 200 thatoperates according to certain techniques of the present disclosure.Exemplary CAS 200 can be installed in association with ACD 150, as unit154 (FIG. 1) for example. In one exemplary embodiment, CAS 200 mayintercept the communication between the plurality of ST 110 and theplurality of content servers 152 (FIG. 1). CAS 200 can process surferrequests in order to track and learn about the behavior of each surfer.Based on learned information obtained from a plurality of surfers, CAS200 can create a plurality of predictive models that correspond to givensurfers. Each predictive model can be assigned to an object that isassociated with a redirecting button in a requested web page.

After creating the predictive models, CAS 200 can use the models inorder to determine which combination of optional objects can beassociated with certain redirecting buttons in a requested web page suchthat the profit of the owner of the ACD 150 is maximized. Thisconfiguration is referred to as a predictive configuration of the webpage. Markup language files, such as HTML files, are transferred fromcontent servers 152 toward ST 110 and can be modified by CAS 200, forexample, in order to match the predicted configuration.

The behavior of surfers can be monitored and learned during the ongoingoperation of an exemplary CAS 200. The monitored data can be used inorder to improve the predictive models.

An exemplary CAS 200 can be divided into two sections, a networkinterface section and a content adaptation section. The networkinterface section may comprise an HTTP proxy 210, a page request module(PRM) 220, an active surfer table (AST) 215 and a markup language filehandler (MLFH) 230. The content adaptation section may include one ormore page data collectors (PDC) 240, one or more page object selectionmodules (POSM) 250, and a management and prediction module (MPM) 260.Data communication between the internal modules of CAS 200 may beimplemented by using components such as, but not limited to, sharedmemory, buses, switches, and other components commonly known in the artthat are not necessarily depicted in the drawings.

An exemplary ICS 140 (FIG. 1), in addition to common elements of atypical web server, may comprise elements which are similar to theelements of CAS 200. For example, SIU 143 (FIG. 1) may comprise elementshaving functionality similar to an HTTP proxy 210, a PRM 220, an AST 215and an MLFH 230. An exemplary CAM 146 (FIG. 1) may comprise elementsthat are similar to those of a PDC 240, a POSM 250, and an MPM 260.Therefore, the operation of an exemplary ICS 140 may be learned by oneskilled in the art from the detailed description of a CAS 154 and, toavoid unnecessary redundancy, will not be specifically described herein.

In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, in which thecommunication over network 120 is based on IP, HTTP proxy 210 may beadapted to handle the first four layers of the OSI (open systeminterconnection) seven layer communication stack. The layers may be thePhysical Layer, Data Link Layer, Network Layer, and the Transport Layer(the TCP stack). In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, inwhich the CAS 200 is transparent to the ST 110 (FIG. 1) as well as tothe content servers 152 (FIG. 1), the HTTP proxy 210 may behave as atransparent proxy and may use a redirector. The transparent HTTP proxy210 may be adapted to collect packets traveling from/to the plurality ofST 110 (FIG. 1) and to/from the plurality of the content servers 152 ofthe domain 150. The header of the packets may be processed in order todetermine how to route the received packets. HTTP requests for web pagesmay be routed toward PRM 220 and responses that include web pages in theform of a markup language file may be routed toward MLFH 230. Otherpacket types may be transferred toward their destination in an “as is”form.

Data coming from the internal module of CAS 200 is transferred via HTTPproxy 210 toward their destination. For example, HTTP requests for webpages, after being processed by PRM 220, are transferred toward theappropriate content server 152 (FIG. 1). HTML files, after being handledby MLFH 230, are transferred toward the appropriate ST 110 via HTTPproxy 210 to network 120.

Exemplary PRM 220 may comprise a bank of domain counters 222, a cookiedecompression and update module (CDUM) 224 and a timer 226. PRM 220 mayreceive, from HTTP proxy 210, requests for web pages that are targetedtoward content servers 152 (FIG. 1). The requests are processed in orderto collect information that may be used for preparing predictive models,monitoring the predictive models, or retrieving predictive factors to beplaced in a predictive model. After processing the request, theprocessed request is transferred toward the content servers 152 via HTTPproxy 210. The collected information may be written in an entry of AST215 that is associated with the requester of the web page.

The collected information may include associated information such as,but not limited to, the day and the time the request for the web pagewas received, the IP address or IP port from which the request was sent,the type and the version of the browser application used for requestingthe web page, and the URL used by a surfer for requesting the web pagewith the parameters that are attached to the URL.

In addition, the retrieved information may include behavioralinformation. The behavioral information may be statistical informationthat is managed by CAS 200. It may be divided into a requester's relatedbehavioral information and a domain's related information. Therequester's related behavioral information may include timers indicatingone or more previous visits by the requester to the domain ACD 150 (FIG.1), the last time that the requester requested a certain web page, thenumber of the requester's visits in the relevant ACD 150, etc. In someexemplary embodiments of the present invention, the requester's relatedbehavioral information may include some attributes of the relevantsurfer such as gender, age, income, etc. The requester's behavioralinformation may be retrieved from a cookie that is associated with therequest.

The domain related behavioral information may include the number ofrequests for a certain web page from the domain and the time of the lastrequest for this page, the number of times a certain offer (contentobject) was selected, the last time that it was selected, etc. Some ofthe exemplary counters may be time dependent such that the value of thecounter may decrease over time. The domain related behavioralinformation may be counted and recorded in a plurality of domaincounters 222 by PRM 220. In some exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, behavioral information may be written within a cookie that isrelated to ACD 150 (FIG. 1).

The counters may be incremented by PRM 220 each time a request for anevent that is related to the counter is identified by PRM 220.Incrementing the value of a counter may be time dependent such that thelast value may decrease according to the time difference between thelast event and the current event. Then the decreased value isincremented by one and the time of the current event is recorded. Fadingthe value of the counters may be done by using an exponential formulausing a half-life-time constant, for example. The half-life-timeconstant may have a configurable value or an adaptive one. It should beunderstood that the fading algorithm described above is offered hereinfor exemplary purposes only and should not be interpreted to limit thepresent scope. Those skilled in the art with appreciate that otherexemplary embodiments of the present invention may use other fadingalgorithms for adjustment of a counter.

PRM 220 may retrieve an associated cookie from the request, if oneexists. In one exemplary embodiment, in which the cookie is compressed,the cookie is transferred to CDUM 224. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that different methods may be used forcompressing/decompressing information written in a cookie. An exemplarycompression method may express the values of the counters using a subsetof ASCII based characters in lieu of decimal based characters. Otherembodiments may express the counters by using logarithmic numbers(integer and mantissa), for example. Still other embodiments may use thecombination of the two.

The decompressed cookie is parsed to identify a requester's ID wherein arequester's ID is an ID number that has been allocated to the requesterby PRM 220. An exemplary ID may be defined randomly from a large numberof alternatives. It may be a 32 bit or 64 bit number. If a requester'sID exists, then the AST 215 is searched for a section in AST 215 that isassociated with the requester's ID. If a section exists, then a newentry is allocated in the relevant section of AST 215 for recording theassociated and behavioral information that is relevant to therequester's request. If a section in AST 215 was not found, a new ID maybe allocated for the given requester. In some exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention, a field in the cookie may point to a file storedat the server that includes behavioral information associated with asurfer.

If a requester's ID was not found in the cookie, a new requester's IDmay be allocated to the requester. To do so, a new section in AST 215may be allocated by PRM 210 to be associated with the new requester's IDand a new entry in the section allocated for storage of the informationthat is related to the current request for a web page.

Timer 226 may be used while managing behavioral information of a user.It may be used for timing indication on previous activities such asprevious visiting, previous purchasing, etc. Further, the value of timer226 may be used in the process of time fading of the counters. The clockof timer 226 may range from a few seconds to a few minutes, for example.Timer 226 may be a cyclic counter having a cycle of six months, forexample.

Exemplary AST 215 may be a table, which is stored in a random accessmemory (RAM), for example. AST 215 may be divided into a plurality ofsections such that each section is associated with a requester's ID andrepresents an active surfer. Further, each section may include aplurality of entries. Each entry may be associated with a request of asurfer from the web site ACD 150 (FIG. 1). Each entry may have aplurality of fields for storing information that may be used in theprediction process.

Each entry may include fields such as, but not limited to, the receipttime of the relevant request or associated information retrieved fromthe relevant request. Exemplary associated information may be such as,but not limited to, the type and the version of the browser applicationused for requesting the web page or the URL used by a surfer forrequesting the web page along with the parameters that are attached tothe URL.

In some embodiments of the present invention, some the URLs may includecontent grouping information such as, but not limited to, attributes ofthe content objects. Exemplary attributes may be the cost of a product,the brand of a product, vacation information, etc.

Other fields in an entry of AST 215 may store updated requester relatedbehavioral information. Still other fields may store domain relatedbehavioral information that was valid when the previous web page wassent from the domain to the requester. Yet another group of fields maystore management information that is related to the operation of CAS 200and indicate whether the current section is associated with a controlsurfer or a common surfer, for example. A common surfer may be a surferfor whom the object was presented as a result of using the object'sprediction module. A control surfer may be a surfer for whom the objectwas selected randomly to be presented.

New sections and new entries in AST 215 are allocated by PRM 210.Different modules of CAS 200 may read and write information from/to theAST 215, as disclosed below relative to the description of the othermodules of CAS 200. Once every configurable period, AST 215 may bescanned by MPM 260 looking for one or more inactive sections of AST 215.Exemplary periods may range from a few seconds to a few minutes. Aninactive section is a section that the time period between the lastreceived request (the time associated with the last entry of thesection) is longer than a certain configurable value. Entries ofinactive sections of AST 215 may be released after any stored data iscopied to the appropriate PDC 240.

After allocating an entry for the current request in the appropriatesection of AST 215, PRM 210 may write the retrieved associatedinformation in the appropriate fields of the entry. A requester'srelated behavioral information may be retrieved from the decompressedcookie. The appropriate counters of the requester's retrieved relatedbehavioral information may be updated. The received value of theappropriate counters may be manipulated to include the time affect ofthe period from the last visit (i.e., the fading affect). The timeadapted value may be incremented by one, counting the current visit. Theupdated value may be stored in the relevant field of the entry.

PRM 210 may determine whether a requester that was assigned a new IDvalue can be designated as either a “control” or “common” requester. Thedecision may be based on configurable parameters, which may depend onthe mode of operation of CAS 200, such as, for example, whether CAS 200is operating in a “learning” mode or an “ongoing” mode. The decision onhow to label the requester may be written in the appropriate field inthe associated entry or section.

In the case that the requester has a valid ID, the URL associated withthe request is parsed in order to determine which web page waspreviously delivered to the requester. The determination of thepreviously delivered web page may indicate the stimulus that promptedthe user to make the current request. Once determined, the requester'ssection in AST 215 is searched for an entry that is associated with apreviously delivered page (PDP). If such an entry is found, then anindication of “success” is written in association with the combinationof the requested object and the link design (i.e., slot or redirectionbutton). The success indication may be marked in a response field thatis associated with the combination object and slot of the entry thatincludes the PDP that prompted the current requested object. Whileprocessing the information that is stored in the AST, object and slotcombinations that do not have a success indication may be marked as“failures.”

After processing the request, PRM 210 may replace the cookie, or write anew cookie if the request does not already include a cookie, withupdated behavioral information. Subsequently, the request with the newcookie may be transferred to one of the content servers 152 (FIG. 1) viaHTTP proxy 210. More information on the operation of PRM 210 isdisclosed below in conjunction with FIG. 4.

An exemplary MLFH 230 may comprise a cookie update and compressionmodule (CCM) 232. MLFH 220 receives, via HTTP proxy 210, markup language(ML) files such as HTML files, for example, that represent the requestedweb pages sent from content servers 152 toward ST 110 (FIG. 1). Eachreceived ML file is parsed and the requester's ID retrieved. Inaddition, the web page ID may be defined. Based on the requester's ID,the relevant entry in the requester section of AST 215 is retrieved andparsed and the requester's assigned type (“control” or “common”) isdetermined.

For a “control” requester, based on the web page ID, MLFH 230 mayrandomly configure the received ML file. The configuration may includethe set of links (i.e., slots or redirection buttons) in the web pageand an assigned object for each one of the links in the set. Theassigned object may be selected randomly from a group of objects thatmay be presented on the requested web page, as determined by ID of theweb page. In the case that the requester is not a “control” requester,the location of the entry in AST 215 that is relevant to the currentpage is transferred to one of the POSM 250 associated with the page IDof the current received ML file. In response, POSM 250 may initiate aselection process for determining the predicted configuration (objectand slot) of the received ML file. As an example, the predictedconfiguration may be the configuration which maximizes the predictedexpected value obtained by presenting the particular configuration.

When MLFH 230 has a defined configuration (randomly selected orpredicted), it may manipulate the received ML file in order to includethe configuration. Per each set (object and slot), the URL of theselected object may be assigned to the relevant link (slot) in the MLfile. In addition, the entry in AST 215 may be updated to include theconfiguration of the page. Fields of the relevant entry in AST 215 thatneed to be included in an updated cookie, such as, but not limited torequester ID, updated page ID counters, and timers, are retrieved fromAST 215 by MLFH 230. Identified fields are compressed by CCM 232,according to one of the compression methodologies previouslyanticipated. The compressed cookie is added to the header of themodified ML file. The modified ML file with the new cookie may then betransferred toward one of ST 110 (FIG. 1) via HTTP proxy 210. Moreinformation on the operation of MLFH 230 is disclosed below inconjunction with FIG. 6.

Each PDC 240 is associated with a web page that is stored in one of thecontent servers 152 (FIG. 1) and includes one or more links (slots) aswell as a group or set of optional objects that may be assigned to thoseslots. Exemplary PDC 240 stores and manage the sampled data that isneeded for calculating predictive models for objects that are associatedwith the given web page. An exemplary PDC 240 may comprise an eventlogger (ELOG) 242, an observation manager module (OMM) 246, and/or anobjects historical database (OHDB) 248 that may include a plurality ofdatabase couples 249 as & of to 249 ns & nf. Each couple is associatedwith an object (objects a-n that may be assigned to the page). Eachcouple of databases, one database, 249 af for example, stores records ofevents in which a link to the relevant object appeared in a deliveredweb page but the object was not selected. The second DB 249 as storesrecords of events in which the relevant object was selected, forexample.

From time to time, one or more entries of an inactive section may beretrieved from AST 215 by MPM 260. These entries may be sorted accordingto the web pages that are associated with the entry and copied to ELOG242 of the relevant PDC 240. Wherein each PDC 240 is associated with oneweb page of the one or more web pages, each one of these entries, in AST215, may be transferred as a record into ELOG 242 and the inactiveentries released from AST 215.

OMM 246 manages the stored records that are related to its associatedweb page. In order to reduce the cost and the complexity of the PDC 240storage volume, the storage volume may be divided into two types, shortterm (ELOG 242) and long term (the bank of databases OHDB 248).Periodically, once in a configurable transfer period (TP), an hour forexample, the records in the ELOG 248 may be copied into appropriate ODB249 and then released.

In one embodiment of PDC 240, OHDB 248 is managed in a cyclic mode. Thevolume of each ODB 249 is divided into a plurality of sub-ODB. Eachsub-ODB is associated with a transfer period. A transfer period, forexample, may be the time interval between transferring the data of ELOG242 to OHDB 248 and the number of sub-ODB may be a configurable numberthat depends on the volume of each ODB 249 and the number of records forsub-ODB that are needed. The number of records in sub-OBD may varyaccording to the mode of operation, i.e. “learning” or “ongoing” mode,for example.

It is conceivable that the number of records copied from ELOG to asub-ODB may be larger than the size of the sub-ODB. In such a scenario,dropping of records may be required. It is anticipated that in order tokeep the integrity of the sampled data when record dropping is required,the ratio between the number of success-records that are copied to ODB249 s and the number of fail-records (not having a success indication)that are copied into ODB 249 f must be taken into consideration. Moreinformation on the operation of PDC 240 is disclosed below inconjunction with FIG. 5.

Each POSM 250 is associated with a web page that is stored in one of thecontent servers 152 (FIG. 1) and includes one or more links (slots) anda group of optional objects that may be assigned to those slots. In anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, POSM 250 may receive,from MLFH 230, a pointer to an entry in AST 215 that is associated witha markup language file (HTML, for example) currently processed by MLFH230. After processing the information that is retrieved from therelevant entry in AST 215, POSM 250 may deliver a predictiveconfiguration, which is a set of pairs, each pair comprised of a slotand an object, to be embedded in the markup language file that iscurrently handled. An exemplary POSM 250 may comprise a predictivefactors buffer (PFB) 253, an object selecting processor (OSP) 255 and abank of current predictive models that includes a plurality of object'spredictive model (OPM) 257 a to 257 k. Each OPM 257 is associated withan object that may be presented on the currently processed HTML file.

A plurality of predictive factors may be retrieved by OSP 255 from therelevant entry in AST 215 and stored in PFB 253. Different methods maybe used for determining which configuration of a delivered web pagemaximizes the expected predicted value obtained by presenting theconfiguration. In one exemplary method for defining the predictiveconfiguration, each one of the OPM 257 a-k may be processed eithersingularly or in parallel. Per each OPM 257 a-k, one or more relevantpredictive factors are copied from PFB 253 into the relevant location inOPM 257 and the predictive value of the object, as well as thepredictive value of the configuration (set of objects and slots), iscalculated and written in a table of prediction values. Aftercalculating the predictive value of a first object and the recommendedconfiguration of the page in view of the first object, OSP 255 mayrepeat the process for the remaining one or more objects.

After calculating the predictive values and the configuration per eachobject, OSP 255 may scan the table of prediction values in order todetermine which web page configuration (set of slots and objects)without conflicts has the highest probability of being selected by asurfer. The identified configuration may be stored in the relevant entryof AST 215 and indication that a selection was made may be sent to MLFH230.

An alternative embodiment of OSP may use another method, such asexhausting search, for defining the predictive configuration for therequested web page. In such an embodiment, the table of predictionvalues may include an entry per each possible configuration(permutation) of the web page. Each entry in the table conceivable mayhave a plurality of fields wherein each field may be associated with anoptional slot. Per each cell (a junction between a row and a column inthe table), the OPM 257 of the object that is associated with the slotmay be fetched and calculated in view of the other configuration pairsof the web page. The predictive value of the configuration of the webpage may be calculated as the average of the predictive value of eachcell in the row such that the configuration with the highest value maybe selected as the predictive configuration. More information on theoperation of POSM 250 is disclosed below in conjunction with FIG. 7.

MPM 260 manages the operation of CAS 200. It may comprise a predictionmodel builder (PMB) 262, a manager module 264 and a predictive modelmonitoring module (PMM) 266. Exemplary manager 264 may communicate withthe administrator of ACD 150 (FIG. 1) in order to collect information onthe various web pages such as, but not limited to, which optionalobjects may be associated with a web page, which slots the optionalobjects may be assigned, the value of each object to the owner of thecontent server, the time of the day in which an object may be presented,etc.

Among other tasks, manager module 264 may define the operation mode ofCAS 200. It may determine whether to work in a learning (training) modeor in ongoing mode, for example. Further, it may get monitoring reportsfrom PMM 266 and generate a decision as to whether the currentpredictive models are valid, need tuning or need replacing. Managermodule 264 may further communicate with the administrator of ACD 150(FIG. 1) in order to deliver reports or gather information on new pages,expired pages, etc.

On a configurable schedule, manager module 264 may be adapted to scanthe AST 215 and identify any inactive sections. An exemplary scanningperiod may be in the range of few minutes to a few hours. An inactivesection is a section that the time period between the last receivedrequest (the time associated with the last entry of the section) and thescanning time is longer than a certain configurable value. Manger module264 may sort the entries of each inactive section according to theirassociated web page. Each identified entry in the inactive section maybe copied into the ELOG 242 that is associated with the PDC 240 andassigned to the specific web page. After the data of the inactiveentries of AST 215 has been copied, the inactive entries may bereleased. More information on the operation of Manager module 264 isdisclosed below in conjunction with FIGS. 3A & 3B.

An exemplary PMB 262 may be operable to create a plurality of predictivemodels wherein each predictive model may be associated with an objectthat may be presented in a certain web page. A predictive model mayinclude one or more predictive formulas. In order to calculate apredictive formula, an exemplary PMB 262 may use a known predictivealgorithm such as, but not limited to, logistic regression, linearregression, decision tree analysis, etc. Further, some exemplaryembodiments of PMB 262 may use stepwise methods while calculating thepredictive formula. An exemplary predictive model may include one ormore predictive factors wherein each set of values of the predictivefactor may be associated with a coefficient in a predictive formula.Exemplary value sets may be a list of values or a range values. Thecoefficient may represent the effect of a predictive factor on theprediction that the relevant content object will be selected by asurfer. Exemplary predictive factors may be such as, but not limited to,the day in the week, the hour, the browser type, the number of visits tothe site, the content object that is presented in another selectingbutton in the same web page, the time from the last visit, a surfer'sattribute, a content object attribute, etc.

PMB 262 may use one or more sets of properties which can be used duringthe preparation of the predictive model. Each set of properties may becomposed of a set of parameters that can be used while preparing aprediction model. An exemplary parameter may be an “aging” parameterthat assigns a weight to an entry based on its age. Other parameters maydefine the minimum number of appearances required for a predictivefactor to be considered relevant. Another parameter may define theminimum predictive score value required for a predictive model to beprocessed further.

The process of preparing an object's prediction model may includeorganizing the raw data from success and fail ODB 249 into an object'stable. Each entry from the ODBs 249Ns & 249Nf is copied into a row(record) in the object's table. The rows are sorted by time, regardlessof success indication. Each column in the object's table may beassociated with a parameter of the record, which is stored in the row.Exemplary columns may be the weight of the record (the weight mayreflect the decreased value of the ODB from which the record wascopied), the result, success or failure designation, or variouspredictive factors that are stored in the relevant record. Exemplarypredictive factors may include relevant URL keys that were embeddedwithin the associated information that was stored in the record whereinsome of the URL keys may include attributes of the requested web pagesuch as behavioral information values In some embodiments, the cookiemay include one or more attributes of a surfer and those attributes maybe associated with certain columns in the object's table. The object'stable may be divided into a validation table and a training table. Thetraining table may be referred as an analyzing table.

After organizing the object's table, a bin creating process may beinitiated. A bin may be a set of values of a certain predictive factorthat differs from the other sets by a certain variance in predictionefficiency. When the predictive factor is nominally scaled, then a binmay be a list of names. When the predictive factor is ordinarily scaled,then the set of values may be an interval of values. The certainvariance may be a parameter in the set of properties. The overallprediction efficiency of a bin may be calculated as the percentage ofsuccess compare to the total number of records in the training tablethat belong to the same set (the same bin), while taking into accountthe weight of the records when the bin is true and when the bin isfalse.

An exemplary bin may be the time interval between 8:00 am to 2:00 pm,for example. A bin table is created based on the training table bydividing each column of the training table into one or more bins (eachbin represented by a column in the bin table). Each cell in the bin'stable may represent a true or false value. The value may be “true” ifthe value in the relevant cell in the training table is in the bin'sinterval and false if the value in the relevant cell in the trainingtable is not in the bin's interval.

In addition, a legend may be associated with the bin's table. The legendmay define the predictive factor from which the bin was processed, theinterval that the bin includes and the predictive efficiency of the bin.The process of creating a bin's table is repeated per each set ofproperties.

The bin's table and its legend may be loaded into a predictive. Thecalculated predictive model that was created based on the first set ofproperties is stored. PMB 262 may repeat the steps of creating a secondbin's table and a second predictive model based on the second set ofproperties. The second predictive model may be stored as well and PMB262 may continue the process for the remaining property sets.

When a set of predictive models is calculated, one per each set ofproperties, each one of the predictive models is applied to the recordsof the validation table. The results of the predictions are comparedwith the actual recorded responses of surfers and a prediction score isgranted to the predictive model. An exemplary prediction score may bethe percentage of the successful predictions, when compared to theactual recorded responses, out of the total records in the validationtable. The group of calculated predictive models, one per each set ofproperties, may be sorted according to the respective prediction scores.The models having a score below a predetermined minimum (one of theparameters in a set of properties) may be ignored. Then an objectprediction model is calculated as a weighted average of the predictivemodels having prediction scores above the predetermined minimum.

In order to reduce the number of ignored prediction models, anotherexemplary PMB 262 may further process the comparison between theprediction results of the different models in order to adjust theassociated property sets. For example, if one or more predictive modelshave a prediction score below the limit and use property sets in whichthe half-life time constant has a large value, the value may be adjustedto a smaller one.

PMB 262 may repeat the above described process for each one of thepossible objects in a certain web page and then it may repeat thisprocess for each web page. In an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention, MPM 260 may comprise a plurality of PMB 262. Each PMB 262 maybe associated with a web page, for example. More information on theoperation of PMB 262 is disclosed below in conjunction with FIGS. 9A &9B.

An exemplary PMM 266 monitors the plurality of predictive models whereineach predictive model may be associated with an object that can bepresented in a certain web page. PMM 266 may be adapted to monitor theperformance of each one of the object's prediction models that arecurrently used by CAS 200. Per each web page, an exemplary PMM 266 mayperiodically monitor the ELOG 242 of the PDC 240 that is assigned to thecurrent monitored web page. The period between consecutive monitoringmay be a configurable period that depends on the mode of operation ofCAS 200. In “learning” mode (training mode), the configurable timeperiod, Tmt, may range from a few minutes to tens of minutes. During“ongoing” mode, the configurable period, Tmo, may be tens of minutes toa few hours, for example.

Per each object that may be associated with the web page, PMM 266 mayscan the records in ELOG 242 looking for records in which a deliveredweb page presents the relevant object to be selected by a surfer. Eachfound record may be subsequently parsed in order to determine whetherthe record was executed by a “common” surfer (a surfer for whom theobject was presented as a result of using the object's predictionmodule) or a “control” surfer (a surfer for whom the object was selectedrandomly to be presented). The record may be further parsed in order todetermine the response of a surfer, whether the object was selected by asurfer (success) or not (failure). At the end of the process, PMM 266may calculate two probability values per each object's prediction model,i.e. the probability of success of a “common” surfer and/or theprobability of success of a “control” surfer. The two probability valuesper each object's prediction model in the web page may be written in aweb page comparison table. The web page comparison table may betransferred to the manager module 264 and/or PMB 262. After processingthe records stored in ELOG 242, an indication may be sent to OMM 246 ofthe same PDC 240 informing the OMM 246 that it may initiate the processof transferring the information from ELOG 242 to OHDB 248.

At this point, PMM 266 may repeat the process for the next web page andcontinue in a loop. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention,MPM 260 may comprise a plurality of PMM 266 wherein each PMM 266 may beassigned to a web page. More information on the operation of PMM 266 isdisclosed below in conjunction with FIG. 8.

FIGS. 3A & 3B depict a flowchart illustrating relevant processes of anexemplary method 300 used by some embodiments of the present inventionfor managing the operation of CAS 200 (FIG. 2). Method 300 may beimplemented within the manager module 264 (FIG. 2), for example. Method300 may be initialized 302 after upon “power on” status and may run in aloop as long as the CAS 200 is active. During the initialization process302 & 304, the manager 264 may be loaded with configurable informationsuch as information on relevant resources that stand for the internalmodules of CAS 200. Accordingly, the manager 264 may allocate resourcesto the other modules such as PRM 220, PDC 240, POSM 250, etc. The AST215 (FIG. 2) may be created and introduced to the appropriate modules.The clock of CAS 200 may be adjusted. Further, the clock may use aproprietary format. For example, the clock may count minutes incontinuous mode from 00:00 of the first day of January until 23:59 ofDecember 31. In alternate embodiments, the clock may be reset every sixmonths, etc.

After setting the internal models, the manager 264 may get updatedinformation from the content servers 152 and/or the administrator of ACD150 (FIG. 1) such as, but not limited to, information related to a webpage, optional objects that may be presented, optional slots(redirection buttons or links), priorities and the value of each object,etc.

At the end of the initiation process, MLFH 230 (FIG. 2) may beinstructed 306 to treat all responses (ML files) as if each wasassociated with a “control” surfer. In response, MLFH 230 may randomlyselect objects to be placed and presented in a requested web page. Othermodules such as PRM 220, OMM 246 and PMM 266 (FIG. 2) may be instructedto work in a “learning” or “training” mode. During the learning mode,PRM 220 may mark all surfers as “control” surfers. Further, OMM 246 andPMM 266 may operate at higher rates than when the embodiment is in“ongoing” mode. Stage timer (ST) is resetand used to define the timelimit of the current mode of operation.

At such point, method 300 may wait 310 until the value of ST reaches aconfigurable value predefined to correspond to the “Learning Period”.The “Learning Period” may be in the range of few tens of minutes to afew days, depending on the volume of requests sent toward ACD 150 (FIG.1), for example. If 310 the ST reached the value of the “LearningPeriod,” then PMB 262 (FIG. 2) may be checked 312 in order to determineif 320 it was successful in preparing a set of predictive models forobjects. If the set is not ready, method 300 may inform 322 anadministrator of ACD 150 (FIG. 1) about the number of cycles of the“Learning Period” that were completed without success. In such a case,ST may be reset and method 300 looped to step 310.

If 320 a set of object's predictive models is ready, then the set isloaded 324 into POSM 250. Other internal modules such as PRM 220, MLFH230, OMM 246, PMB 262, OSP 255 and PMM 266 (FIG. 2) may be instructed tochange mode into a “monitoring” mode (period). The monitoring mode isused for tracking the individual predictive models. During themonitoring mode, PRM 220 designates a certain percentage (a configurablenumber in the range of 5% to 50%, for example) of surfers as “control”surfers. PMM 266 may compare the probability of success of controlsurfers to the probability of success of the common surfers and create aset of comparison tables, one per each object's predictive model. Thecomparison tables may be used by manager 264 (FIG. 2) in order todetermine the performance of each set of object's predictive models.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the monitoring modemay be implemented on a page level and not on an object level. In suchan embodiment, the two counters, ST and a model's lifetime counter, arereset. The model's lifetime counter may be used for defining the overalltime limit or maximum age of the predictive models. A typical, andexemplary, maximum age may be 24 hours, for example.

Then method 300 waits 330 until the value of ST reaches a configurablevalue predetermined to define the “Monitor Period.” The “Monitor Period”may be in the range of few tens of minutes to a few hours, depending onthe volume of requests which were sent toward ACD 150 (FIG. 1), forexample. If 330 the ST reached the value of the “Monitor Period,” thenPMM 266 (FIG. 2) may be requested to deliver a set of web pagecomparison tables, one per each web page 332. A web page comparisontable may comprise the two probability values per each object'sprediction model that may be assigned to a given web page. The twoprobability values may represent the probability of success of a commonsurfer and the probability of success of a control surfer.

In some embodiments of the present invention, in which the monitoringmode is implemented at a page level, the probability values may becalculated at such level. In such an embodiment, a success of a page maybe defined as responding to one of the presented objects. In some cases,each observation may be weighed by the percentage of the utility valueof the selected object from the utility value of the page itself. Themanager module 264 (FIG. 2) may process the results from the table andcompare them to a predefined set of values that are stipulated by theadministrator of ACD 150 (FIG. 1). If 334 the results of the predictivemodels are better than the required values, then method 300 proceeds tostep 340 in FIG. 3B. If 334, in the alternative, the results are belowthe stipulated performance threshold, then PMB 262 (FIG. 2) may beadjusted 336 accordingly. The set of properties which were used forcalculating the predictive model may be adjusted, for example. Inaddition, an indication may be sent to the administrator and method 300may return to step 306.

FIG. 3B depicts the ongoing operation mode of method 300. At step 340,PRM 220, MLFH 230, OMM 246, PMB 262, OSP 255 and PMM 266 (FIG. 2) may beinstructed to change mode into an ongoing mode while the performance ofthe loaded sets of object's predictive models, one set per each webpage, is monitored and ST is reset. During the ongoing mode, PRM 220designates a small percentage of surfers as control surfers. PMM 266 maycompare the probability of success of control surfers to the probabilityof success of common surfers and create a set of comparison tables, oneper each object's predictive model. The comparison tables may be used bymanager 264 (FIG. 2) for determining the performance of the sets of theobject's predictive models.

Method 300 may wait 342 until the value of ST reaches a configurablevalue predefined to correlate with the “Ongoing Period.” The “OngoingPeriod” may be in the range of a few tens of minutes to a few days,depending on the volume of requests which were sent toward ACD 150 (FIG.1), for example. When 342 the ST reaches the value of the “OngoingPeriod,” then PMM 266 (FIG. 2) may be requested to deliver a set of webpage comparison tables, one per each web page. The manager module 264(FIG. 2) may subsequently process the results in the table and comparethem to a predefined set of values that are stipulated by theadministrator of ACD 150 (FIG. 1) 344. If 350 the results of thepredictive models exceed the required values, then the predictive modelsmay be considered as valid and method 300 proceeds to step 354. If 350the results are below the required performance, then the predictivemodels may be considered as not valid and method 300 returns 362 to step306 (FIG. 3 a) for calculating new sets of object's predictive models.

At step 354, the value of the model's lifetime counter is checked and adetermination is made 360 as to whether the value is below aconfigurable value Tmax. Exemplary Tmax may be a few hours to a fewdays, for example. If 360 the value is below Tmax, which would indicatethat the sets of object's predictive models are still valid, then the STcounter may be reset 364 and method 300 returned to step 342. If thevalue of the lifetime counter is above Tmax, then method 300 may proceedto step 362 and returned to step 306 (FIG. 3 a) to initiate calculationof a new set of predictive models.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart with relevant processes of an exemplarymethod 400 that may be used for handling surfer's requests that are senttoward content servers 152 (FIG. 1). Method 400 may be implementedwithin the PRM 220 (FIG. 2), for example, and initialized 402 by themanager module 264 during the “power on” process each time the managerdetermines to change the mode of operation of CAS 200 (learning,monitoring and ongoing). After initiation, method 400 may run in a loopas long as the mode is not changed. During the initialization process402, PRM 220 may be loaded with information that is relevant forcommunicating with other internal modules of CAS 200, modules such asthe manager 264 and AST 215 (FIG. 2). In addition, accessory countersthat are used by PRM 220 may be initialized, counters such as a samplecounter (SCNT) and control counter (CCNT). Two parameters, N1 and N2,are loaded according to the mode of operation. N1 may define a portionof sampled surfers (a sampled surfer is a surfer upon whose behavior thepredictive models are based) out of the total number of surfers. N2 maydefine the portion of control surfers out of the total number ofsurfers. In addition, AST 215 may be initialized.

After the initiation stage, method 400 may start processing surfer'srequests that are transferred via HTTP proxy 210 (FIG. 2) to a queue ofPRM 220. The next request in the queue is fetched 404 and parsed inorder to identify any attached cookie. If 410 the request does notinclude a cookie (a new surfer), an ID is allocated to the new surferand method 400 proceeds to step 412 for handing the request of the newsurfer. If 410 a cookie is found, exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention may decompress 430 and parse the cookie (assuming the cookieis compressed). In other exemplary embodiments, in which compression isnot used, any identified cookie is just parsed without priordecompression. Once parsed, a cookie is searched for a requester ID and,according to the ID, the AST 215 (FIG. 2) is searched 432 for a sectionthat is associated with the ID. If 432 a section in the active sessiontable AST 215 (FIG. 2) was not found, then method 400 proceeds to step412. If 432 a session in the active session table AST 215 (FIG. 2) wasfound, indicating that the request is associated with a current activesurfer having at least one recent request served by CAS 200, then method400 proceeds to step 440 and continues serving the active surfer.

At step 412, the first request of a new active surfer his handled. Inthe case that the mode of operation is one other than a learning mode,then the sampled counter (SCNT) and control counter (CCNT) areincremented by one. In the case that the current mode is a learningmode, the SCNT is disabled and a new section in AST 215 (FIG. 2) isallocated to the new active surfer. Subsequently, the new section in AST215 is associated with the allocated requester's ID. In the new section,an entry is allocated for the current request. At this point, method 400starts writing the information associated with the request to theappropriate fields of the allocated entry. The associated informationmay include, for example, the receipt time according to the clock of CAS200, the URL which is associated with the request, the source IP and thedestination IP of the request, etc. In some exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention, the URL may include one or more fields that reflectattributes of the requested webpage. Exemplary attributes may be thetopic of the page (vacation, news, sports, etc.).

The decompressed cookie, if it exists, is updated or a new cookie may bewritten. The cookie may include behavioral information associated withthe surfer such as the date and time of the surfer's last visit to theweb page, the frequency of visits by the surfer to the web page, etc.

Other behavioral information may include one or more counters whereineach counter may count the number of events of a certain type. Exemplarycounters may count the number of the active surfer's visits to therelevant website, the number of requests for a certain web page from thewebsite, the number of times a certain offer (content object) wasselected, etc. Updating the counters may be time dependent Such that thevalue of the counter may decrease over time, as previously described. Insome embodiments, the cookie may include labels for a surfer'sattributes. Exemplary attributes may be a surfer's age, gender, hobbies,etc. The updated information of the cookie is stored in the appropriatefields of the entry in AST 215.

After writing the appropriate information into the allocated entry inAST 215, a determination is made 420 as to whether the operating mode isa learning mode and\or whether SCNT value is smaller than N1. If 420 oneor both of the determinations are found to be true, then method 400proceeds to step 422. If 420 the operating mode is other than learningmode or SCNT value is equal to or greater than N1, then the sample fieldin the associated entry (in AST 215) is set as “true” 426 in order toindicate that the current active surfer is selected to be a sampled. Asampled surfer is a surfer upon whose behaviors the predictive modelsare based and whose decisions may be analyzed by PDC 240, PMM 266 andPMB 262 (FIG. 2), for example. Typically, an N1 value that is associatedwith the monitoring period is smaller than an N1 value that isassociated with the ongoing mode. Consequently, the portion of thesampled surfers in the monitoring period is likely to be larger than thesampled portion during the ongoing mode. The value is a configurablevalue and may be in the range of a few hundred to a few tens ofthousands of surfers depending on the traffic through CAS 200.

After setting the sampled field in the entry of AST 215, the SCNT isreset and method 400 proceeds to step 456 in which the requester ID iswritten in the cookie of the request and the request is transferredtoward its destination (one of the servers 152 in FIG. 1) via the httpproxy 210 (FIG. 2). Method 400 returns to step 404 for processing thenext request.

If 420 the operating mode is a learning mode and\or SCNT is smaller thanN1, then a determination is made 422 as to whether CCNT is equal to N2.If 422 yes, the control field in the associated entry is set 424 toindicate that the current active surfer is selected to be a controlsurfer. A control surfer is a surfer upon whose behavior the predictivemodels are not implemented, i.e. the objects to be presented to acontrol surfer are selected randomly. Later, a surfer's decisions aresampled and may be analyzed by PDC 240, PMM 266 and PMB 262 (FIG. 2),for example. The N2 value that is associated with a learning mode is setto 1 and, consequently, each surfer is designated as a control surfer.

In the monitoring period, the value of N2 is smaller than the value ofN2 that is associated with the ongoing mode. Consequently, the portionof the control surfers in a monitoring period is larger than the controlportion during the ongoing mode. The value of N2 is a configurable valueand may be in the range of a few hundreds to a few tens of thousands ofsurfers depending on the traffic via CAS 200.

After setting the control field in the entry of AST 215, the CCNT isreset 424 and method 400 proceeds to step 456. In the case 422 that theCCNT is not equal to N2, than method 400 proceeds to step 456.

In an alternate exemplary embodiment of the present invention, defininga surfer as a sampled surfer may be executed after receiving a surfer'sresponse. In such an embodiment, a surfer that responded positively maybe defined as a sampled surfer and the SCNT may be reset. One of thereasons for using this sorting method is to increase the size of thepositive samples, since the positive samples are less populated thannon-responding surfers.

Returning now to step 432, if a section that is associated with therequester's ID exists, then a surfer's section in AST 215 (FIG. 2) isretrieved 440 and parsed. The requester's section in AST 215 is searchedfor an entry that is associated with a previously delivered page (PDP)that points to the current requested object. If such an entry is found,then a success indication is written in association with the requestedobject and redirection button (slot) combination. The success indicationis marked in a response field associated with the combination of thespecific object and slot of the entry that includes the PDP thatprompted the current requested object. While processing the informationthat is stored in the AST, object and slot combinations that do not havea success indication may be referred to as failures. Next, a new entryin the section is allocated for storing information that is relevant tothe current received request. The information associated with therequest is written into the appropriate fields of the new entry. Thedecompressed cookie is updated written to the appropriate fields of thenew entry, as disclosed above in conjunction with step 412. Notably, insome embodiments the cookie may include an indication of a surfer'sattribute, while the URL may include an indication on attributes of therequested web page.

After writing the information in the new entry, the URL that isassociated with the request is parsed 442 in order to determine whetherthe current request originated from a web page that was recently sentvia CAS 200 as a response to a recently received request from theparticular surfer. Presumably, such a web page included an object andslot combination which reflects the URL that is associated with thecurrent received request. Therefore, the entries that belong to the samesurfer's section, and are associated with recently received requests anddelivered web pages, are parsed 442 looking for an entry in which theconfiguration of the web page reflects the associated URL. This entrymay be associated with a previously delivered page (PDP) that was sentrecently toward the surfer.

If 450 such an entry is found, then a success indication is written 452in the result field that is associated with the object and slotcombination of the URL associated with the current request. At suchpoint, method 400 proceeds to step 456. If 450 a PDP is not found,method 400 proceeds to step 456.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart with relevant processes of an exemplarymethod 500 that may be used for managing a page data collector module(PDC) 240 (FIG. 2). Method 500 may be implemented within the OMM 246(FIG. 2), for example. Method 500 may be initialized 502 by the managermodule 264 (FIG. 2) during the “power on” process. After initialization,method 500 may run in a loop as long as CAS 200 is active. Method 500may be used for transferring the stored data from ELOG 242 (FIG. 2) toOHDB 248 (FIG. 2) while keeping the integrity of the sampled data as arepresentative sample of a surfers' behavior.

During the initialization process 502 & 504, OMM 246 may be loaded withinformation that is relevant for communicating with other internalmodules of CAS 200 such as the manager 264, PMM 266, ELOG 242, (FIG. 2)etc. In addition, information is retrieved from manger module 264 (FIG.2). The retrieved information may be relevant to the web page, which isassociated with the PDC 240 that includes the relevant OMM 246. Theinformation may include the objects that may be associated with the webpage and the slots in by which the objects may be presented. Timers,such as the OMM timer (OT), may be reset.

After the initiation process, a determination is made 506 as to whetherthe current operating mode is a learning mode (training mode). If not alearning mode, method 500 may wait 507 for an indication from PMM 266,in which PMM 266 may inform OMM 246 that the data, which is stored inthe current ELOG 242, was inspected and that OMM 246 may starttransferring the data from the ELOG 242 toward OHDB 248 (FIG. 2). When507 an indication is received, method 500 may proceed to step 509. If506 the operating mode is a learning mode, then method 500 may waituntil OT is greater than Telog 508. Telog may be a configurableparameter in the range of a few tens of seconds to a few tens ofminutes, for example. When OT is greater than Telog, method 500 proceedsto step 509.

At step 509 a new ELOG 242 is allocated 509 for storing the futureevents that are related to the relevant web page and method 500 beginsprocessing and transferring the stored data from the old ELOG 242 intoOHDB 248. A loop from step 510 to step 520 may be initiated and eachcycle in the loop may be associated with an optional object that may bepresented over the relevant web page.

At step 512, the oldest sub-ODB in each one of the ODB couplesassociated with the current object, object “a” for example whichcomprises the success ODB 249 as and the failure ODB 249 af, arereleased and a new sub-ODB is allocated for storing data that istransferred from the old ELOG 242 that is related to the current object.The old ELOG 242 (FIG. 2) is searched for entries that include thecurrent object. The result field in each entry is parsed and the entriesare divided into two groups, a success group (having a successindication) and a failure group (do not have a success indication). Theentries in each group may be sorted by time such that the newest entryappears at the top of the group, for example, and the total number ofeach group calculated.

The portion of the entries from each group that may be stored in theappropriate new sub-ODB is calculated 514 by dividing the number ofentries in each one of the appropriate new sub-ODB (success or failure)by the total number of entries in each group (success or failure,respectively). If at least one of the groups has a portion value smallerthan one, meaning that some of the entries of the group will be droppedin lieu of being stored in the new sub-ODB, then the smallest portionvalue may be selected for determining the number of entries from eachgroup (success or failure) that will be stored in the appropriatesub-ODB (success or failure, respectively).

The total number of entries in each group is multiplied by the smallestportion value for determining the numbers of entries (NE) from eachgroup that will be stored in the appropriate new sub-ODB. NE entriesfrom the top (the newest entries) of each group are copied 516 to theappropriate sub-ODB. If for both groups the portion values are greaterthan “one,” then all the entries of each group (success or failure) maybe copied to the appropriate new sub-ODB (success or failure,respectively). The portion value of the deletion per each group (successand failure) may be recorded in association with the success ODB 249as-ns and the failure ODB249 af-nf (respectively). In some exemplaryembodiments of the present invention, old entries in the success ODB 249as-ns and the failure ODB249 af-nf may be released only when there is nofree space available for storage of new observations.

After copying 516 the entries to the new sub-ODB, a determination ismade 520 as to whether additional objects may be presented in therelevant web page. If yes, method 500 may start a new cycle in the loopfor the next object and return to step 510. If 520 there are no moreobjects, then the old ELOG 242 is released 522, timer OT is reset, andmethod 500 returns to step 506.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart with relevant processes of an exemplarymethod 600 that may be used for handling web pages, in the form ofmarkup language files (an HTML, for example), which is sent from one ofthe content servers 152 (FIG. 1) in response to a surfer's requests.Method 600 may be implemented within the MLFH 230 (FIG. 2), for example.Method 600 may be initialized 602 by the manager module 264 (FIG. 2)during the “power on” process. After initialization, method 600 may runin a loop as long as CAS 200 (FIG. 2) is active. During theinitialization process 602, MLFH 230 may be loaded with information thatis relevant for communicating with other internal modules of CAS 200,modules such as the manager 264, the plurality of POSM 250 and AST 215(FIG. 2).

After the initiation stage, method 600 may start processing received webpages that are transferred via HTTP proxy 210 (FIG. 2) to a queue ofMLFH 230. The next packet in the queue is fetched 604 and parsed inorder to determine whether a cookie is attached. If a cookie is found,the cookie is furthered processed and the requester ID, which is writtenin the cookie, is retrieved. AST 215 is searched for a section that isassociated with the requester ID. The last entry in the requester'ssection is retrieved and parsed to identify the fields that define asurfer's type, i.e. sampled, common or control. In addition, the page IDis defined by parsing the header of the received web page.

If 610 a surfer is designated as a control surfer, then at step 612,based on the web page ID, a list of optional objects and a list of slotsin the web page are fetched. Per each slot, an optional object isselected randomly and method 600 proceeds to step 622.

If 610 the requester of the web page is not designated as a controlsurfer, then a POSM 257 is selected 614 based on the page ID. The entrynumber in AST 215 that is associated with the request for the given webpage is transferred to a queue of the selected POSM 257. Method 600 maywait 620 until a decision from the relevant POSM 250 is received thatidentifies the web page configuration that has the highest probabilityof prompting an active surfer to respond through the selection of one ofthe optional objects. The identified configuration may include a list ofslot and object combinations that have the highest associatedprobabilities. Then method 600 proceeds to step 622.

At step 622, either the identified configuration of the web page or therandomly selected configuration of the web page, having a set of objectand slot combinations, is written 622 to the appropriate fields in therelevant entry of AST 215. The HTML file is modified to include theselected one or more objects, each object being associated with anappropriate slot. The updated cookie, which was prepared by PRM 220 andstored in the entry, is compressed and added as a cookie to the modifiedML file. The requester's ID is also added and associated with thecookie. The modified ML file with the cookie is transferred to HTTPproxy 210 and sent toward the destination of the ML file of therequester surfer. Method 600 returns to step 604 and starts processing anew received ML file.

In an alternate embodiment, the set of pairs in the configuration mayinfluence the design of a web page. In such an embodiment, a pair mayinclude a design feature in lieu of a slot and the value of the designfeature in lieu of the object. Exemplary design features may bebackground color, font size, font type, etc. Exemplary correspondingvalues may be red, 12 points, Times New Roman, etc.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart with relevant processes of an exemplarymethod 700 that may be used for calculating the prediction value foreach optional configuration (set of optional-object and slotcombinations) from a plurality of optional configurations of a deliveredweb page. The prediction value may represent the probability that therequester of the delivered web page will respond (select one of thepresented objects) while observing the delivered web page. Method 700may be implemented within the OSP 255 (FIG. 2), for example. Method 700,at a selected POSM 257 that is associated with a delivered web page, maybe initialized 702 upon receipt of an entry number in AST 215 (FIG. 2).The entry is associated with the request for the delivered web page thatis currently processed (step 614, FIG. 6) by MLFH 230 (FIG. 2).

After initiation, method 700 may fetch 704 the entry from AST 215 thatis associated with the request for this delivered web page. The entrymay be parsed and a plurality of predictive factors retrieved from theassociated information, behavioral information, and grouping information(if such exists). Exemplary predictive factors that may be retrievedfrom the associated information stored at the entry may include thereceipt time of the request, the URL keys associated with the request,etc. Exemplary predictive factors that may be retrieved from thebehavioral information may include the elapsed time from the last visitof the requester in ACD 150 (FIG. 1), the number of positive responsesfrom the requester, etc. Exemplary grouping information may includeindications on a surfer's attribute such as, but not limited to, gender,age, purchasing habits, etc. Further, the indication may be coded in acode which is unknown to CAS 200 (FIG. 2). Moreover, the predictivefactors may be stored in PFB 253 (FIG. 2) of the POSM 250 that isassociated with the delivered web page.

The optional configurations of the requested web page are calculated. Aconfiguration may define a set of the slots, in which an optional objectmay be presented, and a selected optional object that is presented ineach slot (Slot/Optional-object). Usually, an exemplary web page has acertain amount of slots and a certain amount of optional-objects suchthat the number of possible configurations may be defined. The optionalconfigurations may include all possible combinations of slots andobjects, for example. A table of prediction values may be allocated 704for storing the calculated prediction value for each optionalconfiguration.

An exemplary table of prediction values may include a plurality ofentries. Each entry may be associated with an optional configuration ofthe delivered web page. Further, each entry may include a plurality offields and each field may be associated with a specific slot number withan additional field defining the predicted value of each configuration.Each cell (a junction of a configuration and a slot number) in the tablemay include the calculated prediction value of the object that isassigned to the slot in that configuration, wherein the calculation ofthe predictive value is done in view of the rest of the slots andoptional-objects in the configuration. The prediction value of theconfiguration may be the sum of the predictive values of each one of theslot fields in this entry.

In some exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the number ofoptional configurations may be calculated once, during theinitialization of POSM 250 or upon receiving information on changes inthe associated web page. In such case, an exemplary table of predictionvalues may be defined once and allocated again and again each time therelevant web page is delivered.

After allocating the table of prediction values, a loop between steps710 to 740 may be initiated to process all the possible configurationsof the web page written in the allocated table. For each configuration,an internal loop is initiated between steps 720 to 730. The internalloop may be executed per each slot of the configuration. An OPM 257 a-n(FIG. 2) that is associated with an object that was assigned to a firstslot of a first configuration in the table is fetched 722. Relevantpredictive factors included in the model are retrieved 722 from PFB 253and placed in the appropriate location in the model. The model isadapted to reflect the configuration. Therefore, if the model has one ormore variables that reflect the configuration (objects in the otherslots, etc.), then those variables are defined as true or falsedepending on the configuration.

Then the predictive value of the object that is associated with thefirst slot of the first configuration is calculated 724 by executing themodel. Next, the calculated predictive value is written in the table'scell at the junction of the first configuration and the first slot and adecision is made 730 as to whether there are additional slots in theconfiguration. If so, method 700 returns to step 720 and starts the loopfor the next slot (a second slot, etc.) in the first configuration. Theloop may continue to the third slot and so on until there 730 are nomore slots in the configuration. Then, the predictive value of theconfiguration is calculated 732 by averaging the predictive value ofeach slot, for example.

At step 740, a determination is made as to whether there are additionaloptional configurations in the table. If yes, method 700 returns to step710 and starts the loop for the next configuration (a secondconfiguration, etc) in the table. The loop may continue for the thirdconfiguration and so on until there 740 are no more configurations to beprocessed.

After calculating 740 the predictive value of all the possibleconfigurations of the web page, an optimal configuration is selected742. Notably, as previously disclosed, the prediction value alsoreflects the benefit that the owner of CAS 200 will get when a surferresponds to the presented web page via the selection of one of theoptional objects. The configuration with the highest predictive valuemay be defined as the preferred configuration. This preferredconfiguration, and its predictive value, may be stored 744 in the entryof AST 215 (FIG. 2) and delivered to MLFH 230 (FIG. 2). At this point,method 700 may be terminated 746. Method 700 may be initiated again uponreceiving a next delivered web page that is associated with POSM 250.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart depicting relevant processes of anexemplary method 800 that may be used for monitoring the performance ofthe current predictive models of a certain web page. Method 800 may beimplemented within the PMM 266 (FIG. 2), for example.

Method 800 may be initialized 802 by the manager module 264 (FIG. 2)during the “power on” process. After initiation, method 800 may run in aloop as long as CAS 200 is active. Method 800 may be used for monitoringthe results of the stored data at ELOG 242 (FIG. 2), which is assignedto the certain web page being currently monitored, before transferringit to OHDB 248 (FIG. 2). After processing the records stored in ELOG242, an indication may be sent to OMM 246 of the PDC 240, which isassigned to the web page that is currently monitored. The indication mayinform the OMM 246 that it may start the process of transferring theinformation from ELOG 242 to OHDB 248. In addition, the results of theevaluation may be transferred to the manager module 264 and/or PMB 262.After monitoring the results of one web page, PMM 266 (FIG. 2) mayproceed to the next web page and so on. In an alternate embodiment ofthe present invention, PMM 266 may execute a plurality of processes 800in parallel, one per each web page.

After initiation, a timer Tm is reset 804 and the current mode ofoperation, which is defined by the manager module 264 (FIG. 2), isdetermined. If 810 the operating mode is a “learning” (training) mode,then method 800 may wait until the end of the learning period. If 810the operating mode is a “monitoring” mode, then method 800 may wait 814until the value of timer Tm is greater than a configurable value Tmm.Tmm may be in the range of a few minutes to a few tens of minutes, forexample. If 810 the operating mode is an “ongoing” mode, then method 800may wait 816 until the value of timer Tm is greater than a configurablevalue Tmo. Tmo may be in the range of a few tens of minutes to a fewhours, for example.

When timer Tm reaches the value of Tmm or Tmo, depending on theoperating mode, a web page comparison table is allocated 820. The webpage comparison table may have two entries wherein one may be assignedto the average utility of the control surfer while the other may beassigned to the average utility of the common surfer.

At step 836, the ELOG is scanned and the average utilities of thecontrol surfer and the common surfer are calculated. The results may bewritten in the web page comparison table at the appropriate entry thatis assigned to the relevant surfer.

The web page comparison table is transferred 842 to the manager module264 (FIG. 2). Timer Tm is reset and indication is sent to OMM 246 (FIG.2) of the PDC 240, which is assigned to the relevant web page. Inresponse, OMM 246 may start transferring the information from ELOG 242to OHDB 248 as previously disclosed. At such point, method 800 mayreturn to step 810 and, based on the current mode of operation, mayproceed per the methodologies previously disclosed.

FIGS. 9A & 9B illustrate a flowchart depicting relevant processes of anexemplary method 900 that may be used for creating a new set of object'spredictive models, one per each optional-object that may be associatedwith a web page that is served by CAS 200 (FIG. 2). Method 900 may beimplemented within the predictive model builder (PMB) 262 (FIG. 2), forexample.

Method 900 may be initialized 902 by the manager module 264 (FIG. 2)each time a new set of predictive models is needed. During theinitialization process 904, PMB 262 may allocate resources that may beneeded for calculation of the predictive models. Information, or memorypointers to information, needed while processing the predictive modelsmay be retrieved. Required counters may be reset. Furthermore, a countermay be used as an index.

When the initial step 904 is completed, an external loop between steps910 and 960 (FIG. 9 b) is initiated. Each cycle in the external loop isassociated with an optional-object (an alternative object) that may beassociated with a web page. At step 912, counter N is incremented byone, indicating the object's number that is currently handled in thecurrent cycle of the loop. The two historical DBs of the object N, 249Ns(success) and 249Nf (failure) (FIG. 2), are processed and a decreasedweight per each ODB is calculated based on the deleted portion that wasassociated to the ODB by OMM 246 (FIG. 2) during the transfer of recordsfrom ELOG 242 (FIG. 2) to the ODBs, as previously disclosed above inconjunction with step 516 (FIG. 5).

The raw data from the success and failure ODB 249Ns & 249Nf areorganized 914 into an object's table. Each entry from the ODBs 249Ns &249Nf is copied into a line in the table. The lines are sorted by time,independent of any success indication. The newest record may be storedat the top of the object's table while the oldest record may be storedat the bottom of the object's table, but it should be understood thatchoice of storage organization should not limit the scope of theinvention.

Each record in the table, i.e. line, has a plurality of columns(fields). Each column may be associated with a factor of the record,which is stored in the record. Exemplary columns may be designated torepresent the weight of the record (the weight may reflect the decreasedweight of the ODB from which the record was copied), the result, successor failure (not success), relevant URL keys that were embedded withinthe associated information that was stored in the record, attributesindication on the web page and/or the object, etc. Additional columnsmay reflect the values of behavioral information, which is stored in therecord. Other columns may represent information such as counters andtimers that were stored in the cookie associated with the request,indications of attributes associated with a surfer that that were storedin the cookie, etc.

The associated information may be the receiving time of the request thatis written in the record, the URL that was associated with the request,information regarding the configuration of the web page from which therequest was selected, etc. Each cell at the junction of a column and arow may store the URL key's value if it exists, missing key indicationif the record does not include the key, or a missing value indication ifthe record includes the key but no value, for example. Each cell in thejunction of a behavioral information factor and a line (record) maystore the value of a relevant counter, timer, etc. which are associatedwith the column.

The object's table may be searched 914 for irrelevant keys (fewinstances), for example. Irrelevant keys may be defined as keys thathave a small number of records (lines) in which the key has a value. Theminimum number of records may be a configurable value in the range of afew tens to a few thousands, depending on the volume of data stored inthe ODB 249, for example. The minimum number of records may be one ofthe properties that are stored in a set of properties, for example. Acolumn of irrelevant keys may be removed from the object's table. Theobject's table may be divided into two tables: a validation tableincluding the newer records and a training table with the older records.Usually, the training table includes more records than the validationtable. The validation table may be used later for determining thequality of the predictive models or the score of the model.

The training table is further processed 916 in order to calculate thepredictive model of the object. The type of the columns in the trainingtable may be defined. Defining the type may be executed by observing thekey in view of a plurality of syntax protocols and determining whetherthe value of the key complies with one or more of those protocols. Next,the type is defined based on the protocol.

Exemplary protocols may be Internet protocols (IP), text protocols, timeprotocols, etc. If the value of the key does not comply with any of theprotocols, it may be defined as “other.” Exemplary types may includedIP, time, text, other, etc. Types of columns that are associated withbehavioral information are known and may include counters and timers,for example. After defining the type of the keys, the type of the valueof each key may be defined. Exemplary types of values may be scale,ordinal, nominal, cyclic, etc.

In some exemplary embodiments, method 900 may further process thetraining table in order to identify columns that may be divided into twoor more. For example, a time column may be divided into multiple columnsrepresenting days, hours, and minutes. An IP address may be divided intofour columns, etc. Each sub-column (a portion of a predictive factor)may be referred to as a predictive variable or a predictive key.

When the raw data is organized in the training table, method 900 startsconverting 916 key values that are not ordinal into ordinal values. Avalue of a text column (a certain string of text) may be converted intoan ordinal number that reflects its frequency (number of appearancesalong the column). A nominal number or a cyclic number may be convertedinto an ordinal number that reflects the influence of the nominal valueon the result of a record (success or failure).

At this point, the training table is ready to be further processed suchthat each column (a predictive variable/factor/key) is converted intoone or more bins and the training table converted overall into a binstable. The bins table is further processed for determining a predictivemodel per each set of properties. A middle loop from step 920 to 950(FIG. 9 b) may be initiated. Each cycle in the loop is associated with aset of properties. Each set of properties may define and comprise a setof parameters that may be used while preparing a predictive model.

An exemplary parameter may be relative aging weight. Other parametersmay define the minimum number of appearances of a certain key, a numberbelow which a key may be considered as irrelevant. Another parameter maydefine the minimal value of a predictive score that a predictive modelmay get in order to be used. Yet another parameter may define thehalf-life-time constant of a record, etc.

The value of M counter is incremented 922 by one indicating the IDnumber of the set of properties that is associated with the currentcycle of the loop. The appropriate set of properties is fetched andparsed and, according to its properties, an equivalent weight per eachline may be defined. The equivalent weight may reflect the decreasedweight which is due to the result of the record's (line) success orfailure, age, the benefit that is created to the owner of CAS 200 (FIG.2) if the object is selected, etc. After defining the equivalent weight,method 900 proceeds to step 930 (FIG. 9B) and initiates the internalloop between steps 930 to 940.

Each cycle in the internal loop is associated with a column, i.e. apredictive variable. The range of the ordinal values written in thecolumn is divided 932 into one or more sub-intervals (bins) according tothe ability to predict the success. Dividing the range of the values ofthe column into bins may be executed in several methods. One exemplarymethod may divide the interval into a configurable number of equalintervals (units). The number of units (the resolution) may be a fewunits to a few tens of units, for example. The resolution may be one ofthe properties that are included in a set of properties, for example. Apredictive score per each interval unit, along the interval of thevalues of the current column, may be calculated by dividing the weightednumber of success records by the total weighted number of records, whichhave an ordinal value of the predictive variable (column), in thecurrent interval unit.

The one or more bins may be created 932 by grouping one or more adjacentinterval units into one bin, wherein the variance between the rates ofsuccess of the adjacent interval units is below a certain value, i.e. avariance threshold. The variance threshold may have a configurable valueand may be one of the properties that are stored in a set of properties,for example. After creating one or more bins for each predictivevariable (column), a rate of success is calculated for the bin. The rateof success is calculated as the weighted number of success recordsdivided by the weighted total number of records. Information on the bins(information on its predictive variable, the bin's interval, etc.) alongwith associated prediction scores is stored in a bins legend. Then, adetermination is made 940 as to whether the training table includes morecolumns (predictive variables). If 940 yes, method 900 returns to step930 and starts a new cycle in the internal loop for dividing the nextpredictive variable (a next column, in the training table) into one ormore bins.

If 940 there are no more columns, then a bins table is created 942. Thebins table may have the same number of lines as in the training tableand a column per each bin. In each cell, at the junction of a line(record) and a bin (column), a binary value, true or false, may bewritten depending on the value of the relevant predictive variable.

In another exemplary embodiment of method 900, step 942 may include avalidation process. An exemplary validation process may repeat the loopfrom step 930 to 940 on the records that are stored in the validationtable. If the bins that were created by processing the validation tableare similar to the bins that were created by processing the trainingtable, then the bins may be considered as valid and method 900 mayproceed to step 944. If not, one or more properties in the current setof properties may be slightly modified. For example, the resolution ofthe range of a certain column may be reduced. Then, the loop from step930 to 940 may be repeated twice with the modified set of parameters.During the first repetition a second set of bins is calculated using therecords stored in the training table. During the second repetition, thesecond set is validated by using the validation table. The validationprocess may have one or more cycles. In some exemplary embodiments thebins validation table may have other records than the validation tablethat is used for validating the predictive models.

Yet another exemplary embodiment of method 900 may respond to non validsets of bins by marking the set of properties as a problematic one andmay jump to step 950, skipping the stage of calculating a predictivemodel according to the problematic set of parameters. In yet anotherembodiment, a set of bins may be ignored entirely.

The bins table and the bins legend is transferred 944 toward apredictive model engine. The predictive model engine may implement, overthe bins table, a statistical algorithm such as, but not limited to,logistic regression, linear regression, decision tree analysis, etc. Thecalculated predictive model that was created is stored as a predictionmodel (N; M). The N stands for the optional-object for which the modelwas calculated and the M stands for the set of properties that was usedfor calculating the model.

At step 950, a determination is made as to whether there are more setsof properties. If yes, method 900 returns to step 920 (FIG. 9 a) andstarts a new cycle for creating an additional predictive model, for theobject N, based on the next set of properties (M+1). If 950 there are nomore sets of properties, then an object's predictive model N iscalculated 952 as an equivalent model of the M models that werecalculated and stored in step 944.

An exemplary predictive model (N:M) may include one or more constants,one or more predictive variables that are derived from associatedinformation, each having an associated coefficient, one or morepredictive variables that are derived from behavioral information, eachhaving an associated coefficient, one or more web page configurationvariables that reflect objects in the other slots, each having anassociated coefficient.

In some embodiments, additional predictive variables may be used. Forexample, one or more predictive variables that are derived from web pageattributes, surfer's attributes, or object attributes may be included.Exemplary constants may be a result of the regression process (anarithmetic constant), for example. Another constant may reflect thebenefit of selecting the object M. Exemplary predictive variables thatare derived from associated information may be the day, the browsertype, etc. An exemplary predictive variable that is derived from thebehavioral information stored in the cookie may be the number of visitsto a certain page, etc. An exemplary web page configuration variable maybe object X in slot Y, for example.

An exemplary calculation of a predictive value of an object may beexecuted based on the following formula:

$P = \frac{1}{1 + ^{- {({{Sum}\mspace{14mu} {of}\mspace{14mu} {relevant}\mspace{14mu} {coefficients}})}}}$

The relevant coefficients are the coefficients that are associated withvariables that are true for a received request.

An exemplary method 900 may execute 952 the M models of theoptional-object N on the records that are stored in the validationtable. The M models may be executed on each record in the validationtable that includes the object M in a web page configuration that wassent as a response to the request that initiated the record. Afterperforming the M models on the validation table, a predictive fitnessscore is calculated per each model. In an alternate embodiment of thepresent invention, the records that are stored in the validation tableplus the records that are stored in the training table may be used instep 952.

PMB 262 may select 952 a group of calculated predictive models out ofthe M models that have the best scores. Then, the object N predictivemodel may be calculated as a representative model of the group of thebest models. Calculating the representative model may be executed bycalculating an average value per each coefficient. The average may beweighted by the predictive score of the selected best models, forexample. The representative model may be stored as “object N ready to beused predictive model”.

At step 960, a decision is made whether there are additionaloptional-objects that may be associated with the relevant web page. Ifyes, method 900 returns to step 910 and start the external loop forcalculating a prediction model for a next object (M+1). If there are nomore objects, Manager module 264 (FIG. 2) may be informed that a set ofobject's predictive models for that web page are ready 962 and method900 may be terminated 964. Method 900 may be initiated again forhandling a second web page. In an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention, several processes 900 may be executed in parallel, one pereach web page.

In the description and claims of the present application, each one ofthe verbs, “comprise”, “include” and “have”, and conjugates thereof, areused to indicate that the object or objects of the verb are notnecessarily a complete listing of members, components, elements, orparts of the subject or subjects of the verb.

In this application the words “unit” and “module” are usedinterchangeably. Anything designated as a unit or module may be astand-alone unit or a specialized module. A unit or a module may bemodular or have modular aspects allowing it to be easily removed andreplaced with another similar unit or module. Each unit or module may beany one of, or any combination of, software, hardware, and/or firmware.Software of a logical module may be embodied on a computer readablemedium such as but not limited to: a read/write hard disc, CDROM, Flashmemory, ROM, etc. In order to execute a certain task, a software programmay be downloaded to an appropriate processor as needed.

The present invention has been described using detailed descriptions ofembodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are notintended to limit the scope of the invention. The described embodimentscomprise different features, not all of which are required in allembodiments of the invention. Some embodiments of the present inventionutilize only some of the features or possible combinations of thefeatures. Variations of embodiments of the present invention that aredescribed and embodiments of the present invention comprising differentcombinations of features noted in the described embodiments will occurto persons of the art.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the presentinvention is not limited by what has been particularly shown anddescribed herein above. Rather the scope of the invention is defined bythe claims that follow.

1. A method for selecting a configuration of a requested web page,wherein the configuration defines a subset of one or more selectedobjects from a set of objects, the method comprising: receiving arequest for the requested web page; retrieving a predictive informationthat is related to the request; processing the predictive informationfor defining a value for each one of a plurality of predictive factors;placing one or more values from the defined values in each one of aplurality of predictive models, wherein each predictive model isassociated with an object from the set of objects and calculating apredictive value for each one of the objects in the set of objects; andselecting one or more objects to be included in the configuration of therequested webpage, wherein the expected utility of the configuration hasa high value.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predictiveinformation is associated with the request.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the predictive information is a behavioral information that isembedded within the request, wherein the behavioral informationrepresents the surfer's past behavior.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinthe behavioral information is embedded within a cookie.
 5. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the behavioral information is time dependent.
 6. Themethod of claim 3, wherein the behavioral information includesinformation selected from a group consisting of: the time of one or moreprevious visits of the surfer in a domain that includes the requestedwebpage; the time that the surfer requested a certain web page; thenumber of the surfer's visits in the domain, the number of times that acertain object has been presented to the surfer, and the number of timesthat a certain object has been selected by the surfer.
 7. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the associated information comprises nominal values. 8.The method of claim 2, wherein the associated information comprises astring of text.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein the associatedinformation comprises ordinal values.
 10. The method of claim 2, whereinthe associated information has cyclic values.
 11. The method of claim 2,wherein the associated information includes information selected from agroup consisting of: a surfer's IP address, a receiving time of arequest, a browser application used by a surfer and a URL that isassociated with a request.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein theexpected utility of the configuration reflects the benefit that will becreated when the surfer responds to the presented web page by selectingone of the objects from the subset of objects.
 13. The method of claim1, wherein the step of selecting one or more objects to be included inthe configuration further comprises: defining one or more possibleconfigurations for the requested webpage; calculating, per each possibleconfiguration, the expected utility of each one of the objects that areincluded in each one of the possible configurations in view of otherobjects that are included in the configuration; defining the expectedutility of the configuration as a function of the calculated expectedutility of each one of the objects that are included in theconfiguration; and selecting the configuration with the highest expectedutility as the configuration of the requested webpage.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the predictive information includes information onattributes of the surfer that sent the request.
 15. The method of claim1, wherein the predictive information includes information on attributesof the requested web page.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the set ofobjects defines page design features.
 17. The method of claim 1, whereinthe calculated expected utility is calculated implementing statisticalfunction of the expected utility of each one of the objects that isincluded in the configuration.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein thefunction of the calculated expected utility is the average of thecalculated expected utility of each one of the objects that are includedin the configuration.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the functionof the calculated expected utility is the sum of the calculated expectedutility of each one of the objects that are included in theconfiguration.
 20. The method of claim 14, wherein the information onattributes of the surfer includes information on at least one attributeselected from a group of attributes consisting of: gender, age,location, and purchase habits.
 21. The method of claim 14, wherein theinformation on attributes of the requested webpage includes informationon at least one attribute selected from a group of attributes consistingof: type of product, page design attributes.